Its opponent, Moreno Valley Canyon Springs, was in familiar territory though, participating in its third semifinal in a four-year span.

The more established Cougars prevailed with a 78-69 victory over Vista Murrieta. After snapping the Broncos’ 14-game winning streak, Canyon Springs advanced to the CIF SS Division I-A title game in Anaheim on Friday.

The Broncos (25-6) made a spirited, fourth-quarter comeback attempt to pull within 72-68 with one minute remaining. Vista Murrieta also trailed by five points in three separate instances inside the 3-minute, 20-second mark.

The crowd in the Broncos’ gymnasium roared when senior leader Serafina Maulupe made a half-court steal and hustled to the basket as her layup closed the deficit to five with 1:21 remaining.

It was an admirable effort considering the Broncos trailed by 16 points at one point in the third quarter. Vista Murrieta played a good portion of the fourth period without starters Jaelyn Brown and Yuendie Guridi, both of whom had fouled out.

“That’s been their spirit all year long,” Vista Murrieta coach Chris Jones said. “They have a fighting nature about them. A no-quit attitude. They showed it again tonight.”

“(Coach Jones) told us to calm and relax (at halftime),” Brown said. “That’s what he was trying to get across to us. We made it this far, (we) might as well go out strong.”

The Broncos lost control of the game in the second quarter, when Canyon Springs outdistanced them 10-5 in field goals made and went into halftime with a 43-34 advantage.

The Cougars used fast-breaks and overwhelmed Vista Murrieta with the inside presence of 6-foot-3 center Charnea Johnson Chapman.

“Our interior defense was not strong enough to keep them out of that paint area,” Jones said. “We need to do better with our defense to keep them out of there. When you have the size differential like we have, we gotta be better at sealing them out of the paint. We didn’t do that and they were able to get a number of easy shots.”

Chapman was a defensive presence with 11 rebounds, five steals and four blocked shots. She was complemented by 6-foot-3 Dre’mel Spencer who had four blocked shots as well.

The tall duo didn’t deter Vista Murrieta from driving to the basket.

“Coach Jones, he wanted us to take inside most of the time because he wanted us to foul out the big girls right away,” said Maulupe, who led the Broncos with 25 points and seven assists.

Both centers would eventually foul out, but it didn’t happen until the final 66 seconds of the contest.

Cheyenne Greenhouse scored a game-high 27 points for Canyon Springs.

Brown scored 19 points, but it was her rebounding (11 rebounds) that was missed down the stretch when Vista Murrieta couldn’t close the gap. Her fellow freshman teammate Brittney Reed had nine rebounds.

Vista Murrieta finds out Sunday whether their resume is sufficient enough to earn an invitation to the state tournament, which begins Wednesday. Prior to Tuesday night, the Broncos hadn’t lost since Dec. 31 to Alhambra Keppel.